For the first time in 40 years, regulators used emergency power to yank a product off shelves

A rarely used federal enforcement tool has been dusted off for the first time in nearly four decades, aimed at a cheap imported water heater that regulators say can burst into flames within minutes. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, working through the Department of Justice, invoked its emergency “imminent hazard” authority in late July 2026 to move against certain Lakkzoom immersion water heaters. The step is significant less for the product itself than for the legal machinery behind it, which the agency has left largely idle since the 1980s.

The action pairs a court filing with a blunt public warning: owners are told to stop using the heaters immediately and throw them away. Together, the two moves signal that regulators viewed the danger as too urgent to handle through the slower, negotiated recall process that governs most consumer products.

The Section 12 authority and why it sat unused

According to the commission’s announcement, the filing marks its first use of Section 12 imminent-hazard authority in nearly 40 years. Section 12 of the Consumer Product Safety Act lets the government ask a federal court to order relief when a product poses an imminent hazard, rather than waiting for a company to agree to a voluntary recall. In practice, the commission has historically relied on other enforcement powers, which is why this particular provision had gone dormant for a generation.

The agency’s acting chairman framed the move as filling a gap in the toolkit. He said Congress created Section 12 so the commission could seek swift judicial relief when products present an imminent hazard, describing it as an important complementary tool when expedited action is warranted. The commission also said it had established a dedicated task force to identify cases suited to Section 12 and to develop the provision into a more regular part of its enforcement program, suggesting the Lakkzoom filing may be the first of several rather than a one-off.

What makes the Lakkzoom heaters dangerous

Immersion water heaters are simple devices: a metal element that is dropped into a container of water and plugged in to heat it. The hazard regulators identified is that the Lakkzoom units can overheat and catch fire within minutes when they are energized while completely or partially out of the water. That failure mode is especially risky because the products are designed to be left running unattended while water heats, and a momentary lapse or a low water level can turn the element into an ignition source.

The agency’s separate consumer warning puts numbers behind the concern: about 98,000 of the heaters reached the market, and the commission is aware of 235 reports of fires involving them. The warning describes the products as metal tubes with circular or heart-shaped holes and plastic end caps in black, yellow or pink, carrying the brand name “Lakkzoom” and model numbers such as 1500W, 2000W, HT1500W or HT2000W. Owners are told to stop using the heaters immediately and dispose of them.

A court case, not a shelf sweep

The phrase “emergency power” can suggest agents physically pulling boxes from store shelves, but the mechanism here is a lawsuit. The Department of Justice, acting on behalf of the United States, filed a complaint in federal court against the manufacturer and the seller, seeking court-ordered relief to prevent additional injuries. The named defendants are the manufacturer, Cixi Miaojie Electrical Appliance Co. Ltd., and the retailer and importer, Changsha Jiayi Tianzhuo Trading Co. Ltd., both based in China. The complaint asks the court to order a mandatory recall of the products.

The commission has been careful to note the legal posture. The claims in the complaint are allegations, and if the case proceeded to trial the government would have to prove them by a preponderance of the evidence. In other words, the “emergency power” is the ability to go to court quickly and ask a judge to force a product off the market, rather than an authority to seize goods without judicial review.

Foreign imports and a shift in enforcement posture

The filing arrives as the commission has signaled a tougher stance toward hazardous imports sold directly to consumers, often through online marketplaces. The agency tied the Lakkzoom action to a broader priority of holding overseas manufacturers accountable and working more closely with the Justice Department and other federal partners on enforcement. That framing matters because low-cost imports sold under unfamiliar brand names are difficult to police through traditional recalls, since the sellers may have little presence in the United States and limited incentive to cooperate.

Reviving Section 12 gives regulators a way to act even when a foreign seller will not voluntarily agree to a recall, by shifting the decision to a federal court. Whether the approach becomes routine will depend on how courts respond and how many additional cases the task force brings forward. For consumers, though, the immediate takeaway is narrower and more concrete: anyone who owns one of the affected immersion heaters is being told to unplug it and discard it now, without waiting for the litigation to run its course.

This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by Morning Overview editors.

More from Morning Overview